Web 2.0 Becomes Travel Standard

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Web 2.0 Becomes Travel Standard
By Jennifer Merritt
OCTOBER 23, 2006 -- During the past few months, BCD Travel, GetThere andRearden Commerce have rolled out features, such as improved searchcapabilities and easy access to content, that meet the newspecifications of Travel 2.0. An application of Web 2.0, Travel 2.0enhances the online experience by making it more interactive throughthe aggregation of disparate information sources. TRX also is moving toadopt the 2.0 specs into ResX by January and American Express plans todo so in 2007. Still, Travel 2.0 is not without its hurdles. As thespecs are applied, the ability it eventually could offer travelers togenerate comments about suppliers may have unforeseen implications fortravel buyers and their travel programs.
Web 2.0 uses technology based protocols to displayinformation from multiple sites and categories and lets users organizethat information in different ways on the screen or do more flexiblesearches. Common consumer examples of Web 2.0 include thesocial-networking Web site MySpace and YouTube, which allows users topost and watch videos via the Internet. In the travel sector, manyindustry experts point to Travel 2.0 examples in Web sites likeFarecast, which uses predictive modeling to advise travelers when tobook flights to get the best price and the search engine Kayak, whichpresents a matrix with fares culled from all the major carrier andleisure booking sites.
"The full deployment of Web 2.0," said TRX presidentand CEO Trip Davis, "is when the user has more flexibility in thenavigation and in searching and as a result reduces the steps tosearch, reserve and book and reduces the time to make a reservation."Davis said that the industry is in the earliest stages of deploying Web2.0 and that there is still room for interpretation for thespecifications regarding Travel 2.0. Davis said in addition to concernsabout how the spec becomes standardized, there is a cost. "Any time youare writing code, it is a major investment," he said. "For any companythat decides to embark on a 2.0 interface, it requires a significantinvestment and good planning and process mapping."
"These tools enable consumers to take control of thebooking process," said Cathy Schetzina, director of informationservices at PhoCusWright Inc., the company credited with coining Travel2.0 and host of an upcoming conference on the subject in Hollywood onNov. 13-15. Schetzina said it is yet to be determined which Travel 2.0functionalities will stick. Even so, there are definite hot topics inWeb 2.0 and two of the most talked about aspects are social networkingand mapping. As an example of social networking, Schetzina notedTripAdvisor‘s recently added "Wiki" feature, a capability based on theonline collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia. "They‘re set up so thatpeople can define travel locations and include opinions in separatesections," she explained.
As for mapping, Schetzina said there are a fewexamples of mapping "mashups" being applied to the travel space. Suchinnovations are just the beginning of Travel 2.0. "There‘s going to bemore convergence of different technologies and that‘s going to enable alot of new things we‘re not even talking about right now," Schetzinasaid.
Historically, the corporate travel space has laggedbehind consumer online booking tools, but there is evidence in today‘smarket that corporate booking tool providers are implementing Travel2.0. "The leisure tools have really caught on to Travel 2.0 and sincenow the leisure tools own the corporate tools, you‘ll continue to seefeatures bleed over pretty quickly," said Steve Reynolds, vicepresident of technical solutions at Management Alternatives.Implementing such technology is becoming a main strategy for remainingcompetitive, Reynolds added. "The only way you can differentiateyourself is through features and this can do it," he said.
For buyers, Travel 2.0 is more than simply having auser-friendly booking tool. "What we‘ve learned is that leisurizing theprocess and the information that‘s provided has absolutely improvedadoption rates," said Susan Steinbrink, travel analyst at PhoCusWright."The move to leisure to support the needs of the traveler and bringingmore of those tools and strategies to the market is key going forward."A by-product of increased adoption, Steinbrink added, is better data tomeet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. "As SOX requires companies toinstitute standardized procedures for auditing processes, whentravelers use these tools they then provide the company with specificreporting as to what that T&E data is," she said. "It‘s animportant component companies are embracing as procurement gets moreinvolved in travel."
"With Travel 2.0, we‘re bringing everything that‘scontextually relevant to the user that would otherwise be all over theweb," said Tony D‘Astolfo, vice president of travel services at ReardenCommerce. "What we try to understand with Travel 2.0 is your identityand that is everything about you—your frequent flyer number, your mealpreference—and then your presence—do you like to use your calendar oryour BlackBerry?—and then the context—is this business or is the familycoming along?"
GetThere earlier this year rolled out an enhanced airbooking interface that features a new display matrix and uses Web 2.0to provide expanded search capabilities that include alternateairports, connecting cities and shopping by reference point,enhancements many leisure sites had for some time(BTN, March 20).
Aided by partnerships with FlightStats, AccuWeatherand MapQuest, BCD Travel‘s Travel Source portal offers real-time flightstatus alerts, customized weather reports and interactive maps anddirections, bearing a resemblance to customizable homepages, such as MyYahoo. Other individual traveler-oriented content it offers includescity and airport guides, streaming news, health and safety informationand restaurant and entertainment options.(BTN, Sept. 11).
TRX, which is publicly held, is beta-testing inNovember a new ResX interface that includes such features as an airfarematrix display with more flight options and more robust hotel mappingand information. ResX also soon will allow users to look at contentfrom multiple sources(BTN, July 17).
Some industry experts believe corporate travel has yetto reach its full potential with Travel 2.0. Noticeably absent on mostcorporate booking tools are features like those on Hotels.com, whichincludes user-generated reviews of suppliers and virtual video tours ofhotel rooms. Also missing are Web logs, or blogs, a forum many businesstravelers have used to voice their opinions of travel suppliers.
While several corporate booking tools have access tothese capabilities, they have not yet deployed them, as such featurescan put employees at odds with company policy on public statements andmay open the corporation to legal action.
"The Web is moving toward user-generated content, andin the corporate travel world, there is an awful lot of desire fromfrequent travelers to have a forum to express their views on things,"said Norm Rose, president of Travel Tech Consulting in Belmont, Calif."There is a fear among corporate travel managers that if they allowtheir travelers to post comments or reviews of hotels, all they‘regoing to do is blast the corporate travel agency, or blast thecorporate travel organization." Instead, such an application, accordingto Rose, could be put to good use during supplier negotiations. "Whenit comes down to it, the overriding discipline that‘s really drivingtravel management forward is the concept of total cost of ownership,which involves more than price," he said. "User reactions tothings—that bottom line of knowing what your users think about theservice—should be a factor in your negotiations and should act asleverage to try to find the best value for the corporation."
Yet, there is a downside to the innovations of Travel2.0 and it‘s something Gene van Grecken, vice president of productdevelopment at Sabre Holdings is taking very seriously. "We‘re about tofind out what corporate cultures are like when you go down this path,"van Grecken said. "It‘s one thing to have this social Web of data inthe public space, but in the corporate space it‘s an entirely differentstory. There are some challenges around these laws that governcompanies but not individuals that will challenge how fast corporationsget into Travel 2.0."
Even as Travel 2.0 faces its challenges, Web 2.0 isevolving into Web 3.0. Both Rearden Commerce and GetThere are lookingat ways to use technology to anticipate conflicts with itineraries,such as flight delays caused by inclement weather. Current bookingtools only alert travelers or agents to problems when they arise. "Whatif the algorithm was proactive and on the day of travel put you on adirect flight instead of your booked connecting flight that was goingto be hit by a snow storm at the connecting point?" GetThere‘s vanGrecken said. "Travel 2.0 still relies on the human to know that data."
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